Learnings from Katsikas — Equality

Before going to Greece, one thing I wasn’t too aware of but something every parent will attest to, is the importance of equality. If you give an ice-cream to your oldest, you had damn better make sure that you have enough change in your pocket for a second ice-cream for the youngest, otherwise all hell will break loose.

Understandably, equality is even more important when you’re handing out food, clothes and any other necessities to people living in a refugee camp. And when you realise that there are over 950 people living in the camp in Katsikas, you can imagine the logistical challenge the volunteers are faced with.

On day two, I started to help in the newly opened warehouse, about ten minutes walking from the camp. It had been operational for about a week and what most struck me initially was the number of boxes with clothes. If, and I clearly say ‘if’, the amount of clothes that has been shipped to Greece is a reflection of the state of our so-called first world, we are even bigger slaves of consumerism than I had previously imagined.

During my time in the warehouse, we received two full-container shipments, which had to be unloaded by hand. To give you an idea of the scale, one container fills two trucks, one truck holds 15 pallets, one pallet holds at least 20 boxes and one box easily holds 20 kilos of clothes, food or goods. So, unloading 12 pallets of goods is not only physically exhausting — confirmed by my hands shaking so much after one unload that I was unable to hold a glass of water without spilling — but the work only really starts then.

On a single pallet, we’d find medications, toys, clothes for men, women & children, food, toiletries, sun-screen, insecticides, diapers and even baby-strollers. All these items are in high demand by the refugees, but because everything was eclectically stacked together in each shipment, after unloading, all the boxes had to be sorted, by physically opening each to verify its content. Clothes with clothes, all the rice together, baby-food separated by age-range, diapers by size and the occasional box of mosquito repellent, which gave me hope.

In the camp, there were a lot of bugs and people were asking for insect-repellent all the time. I knew we had a few boxes of Raid, but not enough for each tent in the camp. So when asked the answer always had to be: “I’m sorry, we don’t have any.”

When slaving away at those mountains of boxes, at times I’d forget why I was doing this, who I was doing it for, and even what I was doing. Automation, fatigue, sweat & dust take over. But every time I stopped to breathe and drink, I remembered the people depending on the work I was doing and I went for the next box. And when in the middle of one of the shipments, I came across another three boxes of mosquito repellent, my mind immediately clicked: “Now there will be enough for everybody.”

We prepared a delivery of repellent for each tent in the camp the same night and the next day, every tent in the camp was able to successfully fight off the bugs. It’s a small victory, but a victory nonetheless. During my time, we also had a toothbrush/toothpaste victory, and diaper battles were won continuously. On the larger scale of things, these small victories don’t mean much. But being a small part of making sure people in the camp get the bare necessities is the reason I went, so I consider my stint a success.